Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Federal law enforcement agents and New York police raided several locations in New York City as part of a joint terrorism investigation, a police department spokesman said.

Searches took place in the borough of Queens, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter who added that investigators had suspects under surveillance. Dave Cardona, special agent in charge of the FBI’s criminal division in New York, confirmed the investigation. New York police are assisting in the matter, the department said.

Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Maine Senator Susan Collins, the panel’s top Republican, were briefed in the Capitol by law enforcement officials today. They declined to comment when asked about the probe.

Representative Peter King of New York, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, “has been in communication since yesterday with the New York police” about circumstances that led to the Queens arrests, said Shane Wolfe, a spokesman. The congressman is on his way back to Washington to get a full briefing, Wolfe said.

Brooklyn Prosecutor

Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for Brooklyn, New York, U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell, whose office has jurisdiction over Queens, declined to comment.

In June, four men were indicted for allegedly plotting to set off explosives outside a New York City synagogue and shoot down military planes with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, U.S. prosecutors said.

The charges against the men, residents of Newburgh, New York, include conspiracy and attempt to use weapons of mass destruction within the U.S., conspiracy and attempt to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, and conspiracy and attempt to kill officers and employees of the U.S, according to the indictment.

The men were arrested in May after attempting to detonate explosives near a synagogue and Jewish community center in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, in New York City, according to the indictment. The four also plotted to shoot down military planes at the New York Air National Guard Base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, prosecutors said.

Awaiting Trial

The defendants, James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, have all pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial in federal court in White Plains, New York.

In July, Campbell’s office said that a New York man who pleaded guilty to launching a rocket attack on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan also said he provided information to al- Qaeda leaders about New York City’s transit system for a bomb attack.

The man, Bryant Neal Vinas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens, providing material support to a terrorist organization and receiving military-type training from a terrorist group on Jan. 28, according to court records unsealed in July in federal court in Brooklyn.

To contact the reporters on this story: Patricia Hurtado in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn at pathurtado@bloomberg.net and; Justin Blum in Washington at jblum4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 14, 2009 17:55 EDT